Misperceptions
by daf9
Summary: Alex makes an opportunity to show off her detecting skills


Summary: Based on another challenge issued at amorous intent. But I cheated. This took me more than 5 minutes. I don't type that fast.

Rating: R. Don't blame me, it's not MY quote!

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"Lust.hot rampant lust." 

Walking by Bobby's desk Alex paused. Was that REALLY what she'd heard him say?

She stared at her partner closely. He was hunched over his desk; face buried in a magazine. He appeared totally engrossed, failing to notice that she was standing less than two feet away. Alex caught the faint sounds of Bobby mumbling under his breath but she couldn't quite make out what he was saying.

"It's a crime!" Bobby's voice rose as he slammed the magazine closed with such force that the desk appeared to leap off the floor.

Startled, Alex took a step backwards and then quickly composed her face into an expression of mild interest. "Excuse me? What's a crime?"

Bobby glanced at her briefly and muttered "Oh nothing important". Reaching for some papers scattered around his desk he added "Anything new on the Saunders case? Did you contact the girlfriend yet?"

"Not yet, no" Alex replied, leaning over to try and get a look at Bobby's reading material. It was mostly hidden by the pile of papers he was organizing on his desk. Catching a glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye, Bobby smoothly transferred the magazine to one of his drawers while adding more papers to his rapidly growing pile. 

"None of this" indicating the pile "makes any sense, Alex. Was Saunders a pedophile or not? And if so, did that have anything to do with his death? Or was it a drug related crime as it first appeared? I'm really hoping the girlfriend will give us some insight into what happened here".

Alex nodded her agreement. 

What had he been reading? Now Alex was curious but she knew better than to let on to Bobby. If he had wanted her to know he would have told her. Since he hadn't, it probably meant it was related to a case but he hadn't quite figured out the connections yet. Probably the Saunders case, since that was the most important crime they had at the moment. 

Alex hated the way Bobby was always one step ahead of her in solving their cases. This was her chance! When he finally deigned to share this particular piece of evidence with her, she was going to be one step ahead of him!

But first, she was going to have to figure out some way to get into the drawer. For now, she returned to her own desk and tried once again to contact Saunders' girlfriend. Listening to the sound of the answering machine picking up for the third time that day, she had an idea. Alex set the phone down and announced. "I need a coffee. Want some Bobby?"

As she had hoped, he offered to fetch the coffee. She waited. When she had walked by it earlier in the day, the coffee machine had been festooned with a small "out of order" sign and several post-it notes indicating how various department members felt about this broken link in their vital caffeine supply. 

"Uh, Alex? The machine is broken, I'll have to go down to the coffee shop. If Deakins or Carver come looking for me, tell them I'll be back in 10. Your usual double latte?"

Alex nodded and pretended to be engrossed in reading a departmental memo as she waited impatiently for Bobby to disappear onto the elevator.

Finally! Getting up from her desk she glanced quickly about to make sure no one was watching and casually strolled over to Bobby's desk. Making a show of searching for papers, she slid one hand into the desk drawer and extracted the magazine. Placing some random papers garnered from her partner's desk on top of the pile, she returned to her own desk. It should take Bobby no more than 7 or 8 minutes to return with coffee so she had better be fast.

Setting the papers aside and placing the magazine on the keyboard of her laptop to hide her activities from the other occupants of the room, she quickly scanned the cover. The magazine was in a plain brown wrapper so no title was visible. Opening the cover, she could feel the bright red heat rising from her neck to her forehead. It was... it was a porn magazine! She had never seen one quite this...um...this... her mind struggled for an appropriate word. EXPLICIT! She had never seen one this explicit before. This must be what people meant when they referred to hard core porn. No wonder Bobby had been muttering about lust! For a brief moment she was shocked to think that Bobby read this kind of stuff but then realized that of course he would do anything for a case. And He'd said it was a crime. Obviously he hadn't wanted to show it to her, fearing it would embarrass her. 

She smiled to herself. That was her partner. He might be a little strange sometimes but he was always a perfect gentleman. Now the shock had worn off, she decided to look more closely at the magazine's contents, trying to figure out where the evidence pertaining to their case lay. 

In spite of her years in vice, Alex had never seen hard core porn before. Some of it was actually quite interesting. This particular picture for example. She hadn't realized that position was physically possible. The guy would have to be awfully well endowed. Suddenly a vivid image of herself and Bobby sprang into her mind and she felt the blush returning to her face. Grimacing, Alex thrust that thought aside and forced herself to focus on the facts of their current case, trying to see what Bobby had seen. He wasn't the only detective in their partnership, after all.

Lost in her self appointed task, Alex neglected to keep an eye on the clock.

"Uh Alex?" She looked up. "What are you doing with my magazine?" There was Bobby, double latte in hand, peering quizzically at her.

Resisting the urge to close the magazine, Alex sternly commanded herself not to blush as she returned his gaze.

"Thanks for the coffee, Bobby. While you were gone I decided to look for myself at this latest bit of evidence. Why should you get to do all the detecting? So you think Saunders was into heterosexual adult porn as well as being a pedophile? I haven't quite figured that part out yet, but I certainly understand why you said "Lust...hot rampant lust" ". Alex laughed.

As his gaze shifted from her face to her desk, Alex saw Bobby's eyes widen. He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. She saw his fingers twitching nervously as he continued to stare at the magazine. She noted with some satisfaction that he was blushing at least as badly as she had. She just might be able to brazen her way through this after all!

"It's alright Bobby. I'm a big girl. You don't need to protect me from this sort of thing."

"You've got the wrong I mean it isn'tI wasn't." Bobby shrugged helplessly as he finally said, "The magazine has nothing to do with the Saunders case. Lewis gave it to me. You remember my car buddy? He said I should look at the second last page. He said I'd be horrified!" Bobby's face finally broke into a small grin as he continued in a very soft voice, "Lewis, buddy, you have no ideabut I REALLY wish you'd warned me what kind of magazine you were giving me." 

Reaching over Bobby flipped the pages of the magazine to the next to last page. It was covered in advertisements. With one finger he traced a circle around one of them. Following his finger, Alex saw it read "For sale. Classic 1965 Ferrari. Mechanically sound but requires extensive body work." Still following his finger her eyes shifted to the accompanying photo of the car.

And then Alex realized that what she had heard had been "Rust... Not rampant rust".

Of course. Her partner couldn't help but think allowing a fine automobile to fall into such a state was a crime. 

Worse still, Bobby had apparently taken Lewis' instructions literally and only looked at that one page. HE hadn't even realized it was a porn magazine! 

What must he think of HER; to catch her pouring over each page with such avid interest? 

As she closed her eyes, Alex attempted to calculate the probability that she would ever be able to look HIM or anyone else in the face again. Suddenly, without warning, the vivid image of herself and Bobby once again inserted itself into her mind.

And if THAT thought wasn't bad enough, she was quickly struck by another. 

Was it possible the magazine might have given him ideas as well?

She'd already made as big a fool of herself in front of Bobby today as she possibly could. Maybe she should just throw caution to the wind and 


End file.
